a1989: Peck's new film - not the NYT (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur writes:
I see that Raoul Peck's new film PROFIT AND NOTHING BUT! was rubbished by a
reviewer in the New York Times of 8 May - hardly surprising, seeing as it is
a damning indictment of the capitalist system.

The film is showing at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street,
at Avenue A, East Village, New York City.

It was shown recently in London, and members of the Haiti Support Group who
saw it there were mightily impressed. Below is an extract from the Haiti
Briefing #46, April 2002:

Praise for Raoul Peck’s new film
Profit and Nothing But!, the new film by Haitian director, Raoul Peck, had
its UK premiere at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, London on March 25 as part of
the Human Rights Watch 2002 Film Festival. Haiti Support Group members met
up to see the film and these are some of their reactions:

“The film-essay – rather than straight documentary – allows the film-maker
to express his/her opinion without exclamations of bias or propaganda. Raoul
Peck’s film is a wonderful example of the genre. It is made up of measured
and visually sumptuous footage of Haiti, images of western society, and
interviews with left-wing economists deflating the many ‘truisms’ of modern
capitalism. This is bound together by Peck’s considered narration. He slips
effortlessly from irony to anger to sarcasm without missing a beat, and
relentlessly unpicks the self-heralded triumph of capitalism. From the images
of Haiti we do not simply glimpse suffering – his polemic is never that crude
– we glimpse also a wiser logic, a deeper consideration, and a great
beauty.” – Leah Gordon

“In this documentary Haiti appears like a revealing agent of the capitalist
society. It shows the price that has to be paid for that system to succeed. I
like the utopian ideas of those economists who think that society can be
based on something else than profit, but are they right in saying that there
can be a way in
which no price has to be paid? Even in Haiti, it seems, that in order to
survive one has to forget about a common future; the only difference there
being that, instead
of thinking about personal happiness, they have to think about how to stay
alive. I think Peck expressed this idea in the very way he used the images:
while western
society is described through short interviews with people in search of
instant gratification, Haiti is depicted with long and insistent shots of a
totally different way of life. After seeing this film I almost I felt like
joining the Communist
Party.” – Maccha Kasparian

“It must be tempting for the political film-maker to focus on recognisable
bad guys and heartless corporations – the corrupt, the cruel, and the
callous. In the
Haitian panoply we would surely be spoilt for choice of characters worthy of
our anger and opprobrium. But Peck has another project, a wider angle to
explore, and he fails to reassure us that, if only we could dispose of those
particular bogeymen in the boardrooms and the barracks, life would be sweet.
Peck neither rants nor minces words; accompanied by his relaxing monologue,
we journey far beyond the shores of Haiti to the epicentre of a system whose
ghastly logic enslaves us all. Two nights at the Ritzy is not enough –demand
more!” – Paul Ricard


Directed by Raoul Peck; in English, French and Haitian, with English
subtitles; directors of photography, Jean-Pierre Grasset, Kirsten Johnson and
Jacques Besse; edited by Fabrice Salinié and Mr. Peck; released by First
Run/Icarus Films.

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